The year 2056 AD.
After years of development, the Extreme Martial Arts Hall had long since become the most renowned major power in the world.
With branches spread across the globe and years of training behind it, generation after generation of martial artists had begun to take the stage of history. As word of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall spread among martial artists, its reputation grew ever greater!
With Hong, known as the world's strongest man, stationed at its headquarters in Hongning Base City, and five Inspectors under his command holding the line in every direction, the Extreme Martial Arts Hall had reached the height of its power and strength after thirty years of development.
Any one of the Five Great Nations, even if it threw the full strength of the country into the effort, would still feel less than confident facing the Extreme Martial Arts Hall alone.
Why!?
The top-tier and upper-level strength of the two sides was completely lopsided!
How could they possibly fight them!?
Setting aside Hong, known as the world's strongest man, whose power had long since been mythologized, only Thor, the world's second-strongest man, was even qualified to barely keep up with him.
Just look at the five Inspectors under the Extreme Martial Arts Hall. Every one of them was an invincible existence Beyond War God-level, and any martial artist Beyond War God-level possessed the power to destroy heaven and earth!
It was worth remembering that even the Five Great Nations, powerful as they were, had to treat such formidable beings with caution.
And the number of such powerhouses under the Extreme Martial Arts Hall had already far exceeded five!
By comparison, each of the Five Great Nations' governments controlled at most two or three such invincible powerhouses. Their top-tier strength wasn't even in the same league!
Of course.
Even the Extreme Martial Arts Hall, as powerful as it was today, had been nothing more than an obscure little dojo thirty years ago, just after the Great Nirvana Period had ended, when it was still in its early, fledgling days.
If not for its founder, Hong, the man who had already reached the pinnacle of the world, carefully nurturing it over the years, the Extreme Martial Arts Hall might never have grown to where it was today!
By now, the reason the Extreme Martial Arts Hall had been founded was impossible to verify. After all, it had happened thirty years ago. Even Hong himself probably couldn't give a straight answer anymore.
(Of course, that definitely wasn't because nobody dared ask Hong to his face. I swear on my honor!)
But an unreliable source had once claimed that on the day before the Extreme Martial Arts Hall was founded, Hong and Thor, already the world's strongest and second-strongest men, had met briefly at an old, established shop in Kyoto Base City, at the southeast corner of the intersection at Heping Gate on Qianmen West Street in West District (formerly Xuanwu District).
What's more, according to an unknown screenwriter at the Hongning Daily, an undescribable contributor had submitted an article to them on February 29, 2033, titled The Untold Story of the Founding of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall: Prelude. The article supposedly described in detail how the country's leaders at the time had pleaded desperately, while Hong and Thor had politely refused, until they finally gave in out of consideration for the relationship and founded the Extreme Martial Arts Hall and the Thunder Martial Arts Hall, respectively.
How much of it was true and how much was made up, we couldn't know. After all, February 2033 didn't have a twenty-ninth day...
And after a thorough investigation by several parties, we discovered that this unknown screenwriter who claimed to be from the Hongning Daily was actually a delusional patient who had escaped from Hongning Psychiatric Hospital...
Although the sources were just a little unreliable, it wasn't hard to find one thing they had in common.
We no longer knew the details of the conversation, but looking back at the Extreme Martial Arts Hall's subsequent history, it was easy to see that the first few Base Cities where it took root clearly belonged to Huaxia Nation!
Moreover, according to reliable sources, Hong, the Extreme Martial Arts Hall's Chief Hall Master and founder, was pure-blooded Huaxian. It was just that he had been taken overseas for assassin training when he was very young.
But Hong himself had a very favorable impression of Huaxia Nation!
In particular, incomplete statistics showed that more than seventy percent of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall's current senior leadership were Huaxian—counting just the five Inspectors and the Inspectors in its twenty-three Base Cities.
From this, it wasn't hard to see that some kind of backroom deal might indeed have taken place.
Of course, this hadn't just been going on for a year or two. The other major nations had all seen it too.
They were suffering in silence, but they weren't saying a word.
The main reason was that there was no point in saying anything!
Hong was a domineering man who didn't care about reason. If you got him angry, he could pull out his spear and run you through!
(Hong: You can voice your objections, but I guarantee I won't change a thing!)
And setting aside whether Hong's spear was an ordinary spear, those eager Inspectors under the Extreme Martial Arts Hall definitely weren't ordinary Inspectors!
Damn it!
For years, America had been secretly making a fortune through arms exports, even quietly dumping laser cannons on the side. They'd raked in an absurd amount of money.
If Hong and Thor hadn't explicitly forbidden human powerhouses from openly slaughtering one another at the Supreme Council meeting in the War God Palace, the five eager Inspectors would have been out there long ago, sweeping up every gold bar the American Federation had kept in storage for years!
Ahem! We're getting off track!
Ever since the Extreme Martial Arts Hall was founded, the Huaxia Nation government had given it people when it needed people, and land when it needed land. They'd practically handed over their own hearts.
Hong was an honest, decent man, too! When he saw how good Huaxia Nation was, how could he not be moved?
They'd provided people and labor, and given them such a huge piece of land to build their headquarters, branches, and Warrior Residential Areas. They couldn't keep taking advantage of them forever, could they?
So what should they do?
Simple!
The Extreme Martial Arts Hall might not have much else, but it had plenty of people who could fight!
If anything needed demolishing or blowing up, one phone call was all it took. The Extreme Martial Arts Hall's demolition crew would send someone over right away!
Ahem!
Thinking back on the Great Nirvana Period and everything we'd been through along the way, these years really hadn't been easy. Especially after the Six Great Base Cities were built—just how many monster tides had they endured!?
And those monsters, too. You couldn't keep picking on the same sheep every time you wanted wool. What were you going to do once it was bald!
Especially after the monsters' scales evolved. Guns and ammunition barely did a thing against those thick-skinned monsters. The ones who could truly change the course of a battle were the War God Level martial artists, who were practically a demolition crew!
Don't be fooled by the flourishing martial culture and countless powerhouses. The number of War God Level martial artists actually under government control was still limited.
Most of the others, including those Beyond War God-level, were under the control of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall, the Thunder Martial Arts Hall, and the HR Underground Alliance.
What's more, the War God Level martial artists under government control had to be divided among the Base Cities. It was already quite rare for a Base City to have even a few War God Level martial artists stationed there.
The Inspectors stationed in the various Base Cities only had to shoulder their responsibilities when those cities were in danger: taking on the tough Lord-level Monsters and driving back the invading monster tides.
So easy!
And over the years, this had become the unspoken understanding between the Extreme Martial Arts Hall and Huaxia Nation.
More importantly, the Extreme Martial Arts Hall and Huaxia Nation had almost no conflicting interests!
Although the Extreme Martial Arts Hall was now the world's largest power, its role was much like that of a school dedicated to teaching and educating people. The only difference was that ordinary schools taught scientific theory, while the Extreme Martial Arts Hall taught the practice of cultivating the human body.
And Hong and Thor were both martial artists devoted heart and soul to the martial path, so Huaxia Nation had no reason to worry that the Extreme Martial Arts Hall would grow too powerful, usurp the government, and seize control of the country.
For that very reason, to preserve the Extreme Martial Arts Hall's transcendent status, every headquarters campus it opened in Huaxia Nation's Base Cities was allowed to establish a private armed force, to keep those clueless lowlifes from barging in and disturbing the martial artists' lives.
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